Qinghai Lake

    Located in the northeast of the 4,500-meter-high Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Qinghai Lake is a blue mirror nestled between snowy mountains and grasslands. Measuring 4,400 square kilometers, it is the largest inland saltwater lake in China.

    The lake offers year-round pleasure. Many prefer the place when it is green and lively. The mountains and grassland wear a green blanket with herds of cattle and sheep dispersed over the grassland. The bank is connected with stretching farmlands, which prosper with blooming rape flowers and roll with wheat waves, sending blasts of fragrance to the lake.

    At this time of year, rape flowers are in full bloom along both sides of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. The yellow flowers, together with the blue sky and water and white clouds, are as breathtaking as an oil painting that allow visitors to forget their busy lives.

    Bird Island, which lies northwest of Qinghai Lake, is one of the most beautiful lakes in China connected to the bank on one side whilst the others are surrounded by water. As spring draws closer, a lot of birds fly from faraway mountains and deserts to breed here. In the noisiest months of April and May, their numbers can amount to 10,000. They lay eggs all over the island.

    Transport: Fly to Xining in Qinghai at the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport. Take a bus to Black Horse River, which takes nearly five hours at a cost of 20 yuan, and then rent a car to the Bird Island, which costs 50 yuan a car.

    Accommodation: Visitors usually stay at the Bird Island Hostel, or camp besides the lake.

    Cuisine: Fish, cakes, noodles and baked potatoes are recommended.

    Xilinguole grassland

    The first grassland nature reserve in China established in 1985, Xilinguole National Nature Reserve within the boundaries of Xilinguole City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is a grassland in a temperate zone in China.

    With an average frost-free period of only 90 to 130 days in a year, the grassland is windy, dry and cold with marshes, grasslands, sand dune savana and wetlands all well protected.

    The grasslands, which cover an area of more than 10,000 square kilometers, were among the most important battlefields in the time of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire.

    It was also a homeland for dinosaurs hundreds of millions of years ago. One of the largest and most intact dinosaur fossils was discovered there. Tourists can trace the place’s natural history at The Dinosaur Museum of Erenhot.

    The grasslands have now become a summer paradise for tourists, or a fabulous destination to ride to on horseback and experience the life of a nomad.

    For those interested in wildlife, the reserve is home to 625 species of higher plants from 74 families and 291 genera, 658 species of wildflowers and a number of medicinal plants. Spruce, white birth and willows are found here.

    Transport: Fly to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia at the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, and then take a train to Zhuozi Mountain followed by a bus to Xilinguole grassland.

    Accommodation: Mongolian yurts are probably the most attractive “hotels” for tourists. They are for rent at 150 yuan per day.

    Cuisine: Mongolian milk tea, mutton shashlik, finger mutton and mare’s milk wine are recommended.(Jane Lai)